
Forensic Files
The victim was well liked and successful, which made the brutality of the crime even harder to understand.

The victim was well liked and successful, which made the brutality of the crime even harder to understand.

An assistant manager of a Florida steakhouse is stabbed to death. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong.

In 1987, the death of Crystal Purcell was considered an accident. Then in 2001, Barbara Purcell called police to suggest that her estranged husband had killed Crystal.

A murder trail turned cold, until police got a call from a woman whose husband, Gerald Powers, had a criminal past and a fondness for Chevy Berettas.

In 2006, Texas real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker was found brutally murdered in a model home.

In 2004, nursing student Tamika Huston went missing from her Spartanburg, South Carolina home. A tip led detectives to her car, where they found an unknown house key that could help solve the case.

In 2008, the body of Colorado real estate developer Alan Helmick was found by his wife, Miriam, who then became the prime suspect.

In 2006, Nevada politician Kathy Augustine died mysteriously during a hard-fought re-election campaign and the medical examiner could neither isolate the cause of death.

Security cameras in a casino tracked a young woman's movements until shortly before she disappeared. She was never seen again.

When two women went missing and were later found brutally murdered, police wondered if they were victims of a hate crime.

A brutal murder, lots of suspects and conflicting evidence but the forensics were clear on one thing: The killer knew his victim. And that alone gave investigators a head start.

It was one of the most unusual cases in forensic history. Investigators had to find a way to solve a murder case with evidence which consisted of a squashed tomato found at the crime scene.

A Michigan State University grad student disappeared and was presumed dead. With the help of a professor of geological sciences, police hoped to get the "dirt" on her killer.

For twelve years, the murder of a young woman went unsolved, but with the passage of time came the development of technology. Could a used tissue found at the crime scene give police the evidence they need to bring a killer to justice?

In a tragic twist of fate, just days after the woman sold her home and moved to a modest trailer, a fire took both the trailer and her life. But the autopsy proved this was no accident.

Seattle police had no suspects in the violent murder of post-grunge singer, Mia Zapata. More than a decade passed before the evidence could be used by forensic scientists to identify the killer.

When DNA proves that a man who practically admits to a brutal attack is innocent, police wonder why he is willing to take the blame.

In 1999, Susan Fassett was gunned down as she left her church choir practice in Poughkeepsie, NY. After clearing her husband, police turned their attention to Fred Andros, with whom Susan had an affair.

After shooting his victims in the head, the killer staged the scene, placed the incriminating evidence into a plastic bag and tossed it into the river.

When a wealthy socialite died after falling down the stairs, witness accounts contradicted evidence. Investigators employed a physicist and an expert in accident reconstruction.